Business Coaches hear these all too often – Why?

The 3 Worst Excuses Business Owners Use …

#1.       “I don’t have the time”

#2.       “I can’t afford that”

#3.       I’ll think it over, get back to me”

Allow me to set the stage here, owners are busy, Coaches want to be busy; an appointment has been set by the owner because “something” isn’t working as well as it should be in the business – that’s why they set the appointment.  The Coach has been introduced to this business owner through another party who knows the business owner needs some help.  Both parties are in the room with an agenda and individual desired outcomes – not necessarily on the same page.

Let’s look at it from the Business Coach’s point of view:

First things first – this Coach is also a salesperson and as such needs to establish (3) things as soon as possible in the meeting. Once the introduction has been completed (who connected us, how you know them, how much time do you have today, etc) the Coach needs to find out if the Business Owner understands what the Coach is able to provide (Leadership training, Sales Training, Team Dynamics, communication training, etc); next does the Business Owner have a budget for such training/development activities and finally does this Business Owner have the authority to say yes.  Here’s the recap:

  • Owner understands why the Coach is there
  • Owner has a budget for such services/trainings, etc
  • Owner has the authority to say yes

Without those (3) items clearly in place, this visit is with a suspect not a prospect and the meeting must then focus on the Owner’s perception of why the two are together at this point in the day. The Coach cannot plow through a presentation assuming it will be well received.  If the Coach does in fact, plow through the outcome will result in one or all three of – The 3 Worst Excuses Business Owners Use …

To clarify the Business Owner’s responses to the scenario as presented, the (3) typical responses are truly a polite way of saying no without any other emotion attached to the statements. The Coach created the outcome by pushing through the preliminaries and jumping to the presentation – a social faux pas. This is a real life example of the cliché that goes like this –“I don’t care how much you know, until I know how much you care.”

Coaches – Learn from the mistakes of others.

Business Owners – All Coaches are not the same.




Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on pinterest
Testimonials
Follow our social media
Subsribe weekly news

Integer posuere erat a ante venenatis dapibus posuere velit aliquet sites ulla vitae elit libero